


May-December

by Iyearnforaplotadvancement



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Anachronistic, Break Up, Budding Love, Confusion, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, M/M, Older Gaige, Older Man/Younger Woman, Pining, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-22 13:02:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20874647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iyearnforaplotadvancement/pseuds/Iyearnforaplotadvancement
Summary: She likes him, she thinks. He likes her, he knows."So why didn't they work out again?""What are you talking about? They're just fine,"





	1. He's Helpful

“This whole thing’s gone tits-up, Amara where are you?” Gaige screams into her Echo device.

A barrage of bullets narrowly miss her. If she stays in her hiding place one more minute she’s sure another wave will eat right through the thin sheet metal she’s using as cover.

Out of bullets, depleted shield, Deathtrap totaled, and completely outnumbered.

She could only hope that the bandits killed her quick.

Amara and Gaige were supposed to be covering Zane while he swooped in and planted a bomb. But instead, here Gaige was after Amara had gone AWOL. Now they were all probably going to die in some dirty bandit camp and Gaige was going like a bitch.

Gaige sighed and ducked as another wave of bullets peppered her sheet metal cover. The scrap metal had given way and had fallen over, revealing her to the bandits. Gaige got to her feet and took off running, just narrowly avoiding the gunfire and flying knives.

An idea popped into her head making her think if she could reach their vehicle parked just outside the camp, she could probably make it to safety. Probably. She decided to give it a shot, there wasn’t much else to make her think otherwise.

She was almost home free too when a bandit dropped down from the ceiling right in front of her. The mask concealed his face, but his actions had revealed his stupidity. “I’m gonna murder you, Little Girl,” he said, raising his weapon wielding hand too high. His face and body were completely open and that was a great opportunity for Gaige to hit him in the stomach with the butt of her empty gun. So she did.

The bandit dropped the weapon and fell to the floor in a heap as Gaige leapt over him and continued for the exit. The exit had been within her reach when a ring of bandits had closed her in and trapped her just a few feet shy of the camp exit. The all taunted her as they closed in.

Gaige snarled and punched the one closest to her with her robot arm. That bandit had fallen dead. Another bandit tried to attack her from behind and was elbowed right in the nose. Two more jumped her from the front, holding her head and her arm. Another had taken a screw driver and jammed it into the joints of her robot arm, hindering it’s movement. Gaige had wondered in that moment if she were going to die right there when a shot had rang out and killed the bandit closest to her.

Gaige looked up-as did the bandits- and saw Zane standing on top of a roof with an unconscious Amara around his shoulders. “Let her go and I’ll only maim ye’ sons of bastards,”

The bandits release Gaige and go after Zane who disappears over the rooftop.

Later when Gaige and Zane and a still unconscious Amara meet in the car, Gaige thanks him. He shrugs it off as being part of the job description. Gaige knows that is wholly untrue and thanks him again anyways.

“Yeh keep that up and I might get the wrong idea’,” Zane jokes.

“That’s okay, you’re wrong all the time,”


	2. He's a Happy Drunk at Least

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "-He wasn't a drunk, he just liked to drink,"
> 
> "Did she mind?"
> 
> "Sometimes,"

She helps him up after a particularly nasty fall.

(He’d been drinking, she’d been the designated driver, again.)

She leans over him. Her eyes are wide with concern as she speaks to him. “Zane, are you okay?”

The drunk man laughs and covers his eyes with his hands, “What am I doing down here,”

“Oh okay, you’re alright,” Gaige says with dull surprise.

She helps him to his feet and starts to drag him to the vehicle.

The others (Moze, Amara, Brick, and Salvador) are all drunk out of their minds as well. She stuffs the operative into the front passenger seat by herself, not that she has any problem carrying him. Robot arms are useful for things like this. They’re also pretty useful for swatting hands away when Zane decides he wants to drive.

“Let me try, I can do it,” Zane argues.

Gaige rolls her eyes and bats his roving hands away, “Get back, you,”

Zane snorts and giggles and falls back into his seat. Gaige gets into the driver’s side and makes her way back to the temporary camp The Crimson Raiders have set up.

When she parks, she begins to load everyone out one by one.

When she finally gets to Zane, he’s awake and somewhat aware of his surroundings. Gaige thinks she’ll get a break and opens up his side of the car.

“Up and at it, Grandpa,”

Zane looks at her with glazed over, half-lidded eyes. He smiles at her softly. Gaige is confused. He smiles at her all the time, sure. But it’s never this soft, never this _genuine. _

“_You’re gorgeous,” _He says.

For a second she’s not sure what to think. Should she brush it off, should she get mad, should she say something witty back?

Zane still stares at her and she doesn’t know what to do. So she just ignores him and pulls him from the car. “You’ve had a lot to drink,” she says as she gets him into bed.


	3. Wow That's Embarrassing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "He's been married how many times?"
> 
> "At least twice in each galaxy,"

One night a woman calls up Sanctuary III and screams her head off. No one can really understand what she’s screaming for, only that Zane pops up once or twice in her rambles.

“Which one of Zane’s ex-wives is this?” snarks Mordecai as he watches with a nonchalant air.

Gaige smirks as the woman continues her rant. Absently she looks over her shoulder, searching for Zane in the crowd of people that have formed on the bridge of the ship. She spots Moze and Amara and FL4K in the crowd and looked at all of them questioningly.

The three of them shrug, having no clue where Zane is either.

Gaige goes off in search of the hitman and finds him holed up in his room.

“Hey, you got a call,” Gaige says.

Zane rolls his good eye, “Yeah I can hear it from here,”

“She sounds angry,” Gaige says.

“That’s Nina, ex-girlfriend,” Zane answers as he undoes his holster and boots.

Gaige leans on the frame of the doorway. “Crazy-ex?”

Zane shakes his head, “Nina’s one of the more level-headed ones.”

“Geez, I’d hate what’s not level-headed,”

Zane snorts and sits down on his bed. Gaige joins him, plunking herself down right next to him. “You gonna go out there?”

At this he laughs a deep, belly laugh. Gaige watches him with minor annoyance and when he finishes he shakes his head.

“_Feck_ no,” Zane says in between giggles, “She’ll kill us all. Best to let her cool off. Once she’s had her say she’ll slink off and never bother us again,”

“How do you know?” Gaige asks.

“That’s how she is. She throws a temper tantrum, has a little fit, and then she gets over it and just leaves,” says Zane. “Never was one for working things out. Just likes exploding,”

Outside, the people of Sanctuary are grumbling with disbelief, annoyance, and amusement. Zane waves it off. “Say, do _you_ want to get out of here?” he asks turning to her.

Gaige raises a brow, “Me?”

“No, I was talking to my digi-structed clone behind you. Yes, _you_, yeh’ daft girl,” Zane teases.

Gaige fixes him with a wry smile. “Hm, where would we go?”

“I heard the ratches are particularly nasty on Eden-3. We hop down to Eden-6, catch a shuttle to it’s neighbor, maybe have a drink or three on the way,” Zane offers.

“You sold me, Gramps. It’s a date,” Gaige says with a smile.

“Oh is it now?” Zane asks, leaning in to her.

“Yeah. Well actually I dunno, let me ask your ex-girlfriend if it is,” she says, scampering out of his bunk.

“Ah-shite- wait!”


	4. They Had a Lot of Banter

“So I’ve been thinking-,”

“That worries me, Zane, don’t say stuff like that,” Gaige said, aiming down her sights at a stray bandit.

“No-no it’s a good thought , honest,” Zane replied.

Gaige watched the bandit walk back into his camp. She waited a little longer, not exactly sure what she was looking for but certain that it was there.

“Okay, you and me, Amara and Moze-,”

“I don’t like where it’s going already-,”

“Double date, what do you say?”

Gaige froze. She turned to look at Zane. “You’re joking right?”

“Not one bit,” Zane replied, a little offended. “What you think Moze and Amara might ruin the evening with their cooing and sighing, because we can do that too,”

Gaige shook her head, “No it’s not that. It’s just...a date? I mean are you sure?”

“If it’s the terminology we’re getting hung up on we can call it- what do you youngsters say- a _hang-out_. Yeah that’s it, we’ll _hang-out,” _

Gaige cringed from the unnatural words spilling out of Zane’s mouth. All the same she still smiled a little, “I don’t know it’s a big deal,”

“Is it now? I mean it’s been some time since I’ve dated, but I’m sure things haven’t changed _that_ much, right?”

Gaige shrugged, trying to focus on the bandits. “Why do you want to go on one?”

“To get to know each other better. Isn’t that the purpose?" Zane had felt confused, two weeks ago she called all their missions 'dates' (jokingly, of course). But now a real one was offered up to her and she was getting cold feet?

“We already know each other,” Gaige argued, “I don’t think a date’s gonna change anything,”

Zane snorted, “Didn’t know a date was supposed to change anything. I just thought it would have been fun thing for the four of us to do,”

Gaige gave another non-commital shrug. “I’ll let you know if Tannis has me on anything,”

Zane clicked his tongue, “If you want to say no, say no,”

Gaige looks at him and gives him a big, sweet smile, “No,” Gaige says. 

Zane’s mouth formed a hard line. But it turned into a smug grin and he leaded down and placed a kiss on her nose before shooting the bandit climbing their tower. “See you could have got that one if ye’ weren’t so busy making eyes at me,”

“You’re frustrating you know that?”


	5. So Then They Finally Went Out on a Date

On Eden-3 Gaige and Zane are getting drunk.

Or trying to at least.

“Ugh, this is turpentine,” Zane moans as the caustic cocktail burns his insides.

“Gasoline-,” Gaige adds with a strangled cough.

“-Sulfuric acid with a lemon wedge thrown in to mock us,”

Gaige coughs up some body fluids, hoping it’s not blood. “Okay, I’m ready to turn in before I die right here in this bar,”

“Cheers to that. I’ll pick up the tab,” Zane says as Gaige makes her way to the ladies room.

When she returns, Zane is outside waiting for her. It seems the operative has decided to wash down his drink down with a cigarette. Gaige scrunches her nose up. Marcie Halloway’s dad liked cigarettes, cigars too. He’d always smoke those things so close everyone. Part of Gaige was convinced it was only to show off he could afford those antique luxuries.

However, watching Zane smoke one, well it didn’t look that unattractive anymore. In fact it almost looked...dare she say it. _Hot._

_You’re gross, Gaige, _she thinks to herself. But then she really couldn’t stop thinking it when she got outside and into his space.

“Hey, there,” Gaige say softly.

Zane looks down at her and smiles. He places his arm around her shoulders and draws her in close. “Look at that,” he says, pointing up at the night sky. “I been on plenty of planets across the six galaxies, but I’ve never seen a sky like this anywhere else but here,”

Gaige looks up at the sky. The stars are brighter than any other sky she’d ever seen before. It’s as though someone’s crushed up a handful of diamonds and sprinkled them right over the planet. In the background is the swirling mass of the galaxy. It really is astonishing.

“Perfect for two people to kiss under,” Zane says with a waggle of his brow.

“Yeah, too bad it’s just me and you,” Gaige snips back with a smirk.

This gets a chuckle out of Zane who holds her tighter. He takes the last drag of his cigarette and tosses the butt into the dirt.

Then he does the unexpected.

He pulls Gaige in for a quick kiss. It’s brief, it’s firm, it’s so incredibly possessive. He tastes like the better part of burnt tobacco and the sting of the alcohol from earlier. Gaige’s fingers tingle.

When Zane pulls away, he gauges her reaction for a second, then he smiles again.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here before the jabbers eat us,” he says, pulling her forward.

They don’t talk about the kiss the rest of the trip. He makes no mention of it and Gaige feels too awkward to say anything about it.

She doesn’t try to dissect the meaning behind it. Maybe Zane was just curious, maybe he just wanted to get a rise out of her. Either way, if he wasn’t going to blow up over it, neither was she.

They spend their mini-vacation challenging each other to shooting contests and grenade tosses. Once or twice they arm wrestle, to which Zane bemoaned Gaige’s robot arm. When they’re not shooting things or testing their muscle against each other, they’re sitting very closely together.

Gaige has gotten so bold to rest her legs in his lap, Zane in response massages her legs and feet. They carry on this way as if it was natural, as if they’d known each other for years not months.

Zane mentions his family, a touchy subject surprisingly. Gaige winces when he mentions that he misses not having them around, but she feels at ease when Zane assures her there are no hard feelings for murdering any of them. “We all make our beds,” Zane says with a shrug.

In return, Gaige opens up about her dad and her childhood growing up without a mom (something only Axton and Maya were privy to). Zane tells her if he was half as lucky as her to have a dad like her’s, he might not have been so messed up.

“I like you the way you are now,” Gaige tells him.

“I like you too,” Zane replies.


	6. Everyone Knew They Had Eyes For Eachother

When they return to Sanctuary III the vault hunters pepper them with the expected barbs. Apparently everyone aboard the ship can ‘see it’. Though what ‘it’ _is _isn’t clear to Gaige. (At least that’s what she tells herself.)

Brick is especially vocal about his opinions and Tina only emphasizes them.

“Zane and Gaige, sittin’ in a tree. I don’t know how to spell ‘kissing’ but they doin’ that and then some,” Tina sings.

Gaige mostly laughs her off and Zane takes in stride.

“Ain’t he a little too old for you?” Moze asks with humor as she reclines in Amara’s lap.

The three and Ava are having a Girl’s Night in Gaige’s bunk. It’s made easier that the three of them share the room together and Ava is right down the hall.

Gaige snorts and snacks on some candy Ava had brought with her from Athenas. “It doesn’t matter, I’m not dating him,”

Amara and Moze exchange glances, “Riiight-,” Amara drawls as she plays with Moze’s hair.

Ava snickers beside Gaige.

For some reason Gaige feels her face getting warm. She runs her hand through her now shoulder length hair. “For real guys, it’s nothing. He just likes to flirt, he flirts with everything,” Gaige reasons.

“Yeah, well only things he _likes_,” Moze counters.

“And it seems like you’re on that short list,” Amara adds.

“You should-like-ask him if he’s into you,” Ava says. “Like write him a note or text him with your Echo,”

Gaige grins at Ava, “I’m not fourteen, sorry kid,”

Ava frowns and makes a face, “Please, a lot of adults do that,” she argues indignantly.

Gaige simply pats her friend on the back and returns to her bowl of candy.

The ladies go on for a little longer, ribbing Gaige for her supposed crush on Zane until Tannis comes in requesting Amara’s help and Moze goes with her. The evening is cut short and the girls agree to get together again tomorrow night.

Pretty soon Gaige is left alone in her bunk. There’s nothing that needs doing, so she decides to turn in early. She stays up just a little longer in bed, going through a checklist of things she wants to accomplish the next day. Absently, she remembers to check her messages.

It’s then she sees it, an angry red notification alert that has her worried for a second.

She thinks it’s Axton or Salvador but when she reads it she realizes it’s Zane.

Her heart leaps.

_Relax, Space Cadet, he texts you all the time. _

Still…

Gaige shakes off her thoughts and opens the message.

_You still awake, eejit? Meet me out on the bridge._

Gaige sighs and rolls her eyes. It was just like Zane to insult her and then also ask her to do something. But she knew he meant it jokingly, anyways she hopes he does.

Gaige purses her lips and thinks about getting up. But she’s already so comfortable in bed.

So she texts back.

_I’m in bed right now. Why don’t you come here and tell me._

A few seconds later she gets a reply.

_Cheeky one ain’t cha’?_

Gaige grins and hates herself for doing so.

_Come here and tell me what’s up or I’m going to bed._

Zane doesn’t reply but a few minutes later, Gaige hears a knock on her door.

When she opens up, Zane is standing in what Moze and Axton would call his ‘civvies’. She’s at first astounded. But then she figures of course he’s got one. She highly doubts he sleeps in his battle fatigues.

Zane quirks an eyebrow, “You look different with yer’ hair down,”

Gaige doesn’t know whether to take it as a compliment or not. But she flips it over her shoulder anyways and tries to look cool and aloof as she leans on her door frame. “What was so important you needed me out of my bed for?”

“Well Mordecai wanted me to get you to fix something, but this is more interesting,” Zane says, stepping into her room.

“This is bigger than my bunk,” Zane says with a bit of jealousy.

“I’m sharing it with two other people,” Gaige says.

Zane nods as he takes a look at Gaige’s work bench in the corner. “That’ll do it,”

“What’s all that then,” Zane asks, pointing to Gaige’s schematics for a new and improved Deathtrap.

“It’s a pet project,” Gaige says, “Upgrades for my bot,”

“I’ve seen these before. I was hired by Tediore once to go skulking for weapons blueprints and I remembered a few of their competitors used these security bots at their warehouses. You made them?” Zane asks, sounding impressed.

It finally occures to Gaige that she’s never really shown Zane this side of her. “Yeah, I made him when I was a teenager. It was for a science fair. He’s actually how I got this arm,” she explains, holding up her robotic arm for emphasis.

Zane’s brow scrunches. Gaige makes a vague gesture and explains some more, “I needed a way to summon the Deathtrap and...well long story short, I cut off my arm and put this thing on,”

Zane’s eyes bugs out and Gaige tries to suppress her laugh. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking back then...Well actually I knew exactly what I was thinking. If it makes it any better my arm was already cut pretty deep when I decided to amputate the rest of it,”

“I-I don’t-_what,” _Zane mumbles.

Gaige smiles easily at him, “That’s how my dad reacted too...after he stopped screaming...”

For the second time that night Gaige felt her face getting hot. The origin story of her arm was always badass to tell when vault hunting. But now in just a normal conversation it sounded...Well it just sounded crazy. Not the fun kind either.

She peers up at Zane, wondering if that would perturb him. But to her surprise, he seems amused, delighted even.

A wide grin split his face in two and he claps her on the back, “That is hardcore stuff, lass. And you did that all by yourself?”

Gaige squeaks out a sound that was crossed between relief and flattered. “Yeah, everything,” Gaige says with a smile. As soon as it had come, her smile began to fall, “And then Marcie Halloway stole my idea and gave it to her dad and now they’re making millions off it and I’m _not,” _

Zane grins and ruffles her hair.

“Hey-,” Gaige protests.

“-Don’t worry about that. You’re the creator. And that means you can make something even more wicked that what these prats have,”

Gaige nods. “Yeah, that’s true,”

Zane points then to a messy sketch pinned to the wall, “So what’s that yoke, then?”

Gaige feel her body perk up as she begins to explain that particular addition to the Deathtrap.

Before they had know it, they’ve talked for hours about robotic upgrades and military tech. Gaige barely feels the time pass, that was until a sudden wave of fatigue hit her and she yawns, bringing tears to her eyes.

“How long have we been talking?” she asks, the sleep heavy in her voice.

“Too damn long,” Moze grunts from her bunk.

Zane and Gaige turned in surprise to see not only Moze snug in bed, but Amara as well. Moze shoots them the deadliest of glares as Amara looks on in disapproval.

“Ah, geez, sorry guys, I didn’t hear you come in,” Gaige says sheepishly.

“Yeah, well we’re here,” Moze replies, “Look you guys don’t have to stop talking but can you do it-I don’t know-anywhere else but this room,”

“Ah, she’s right. Bit late to carry on conversation anyway,” Zane says, walking to the door.

Gaige follows him, seeing him out, “We can just pick this up tomorrow,” Gaige replies, then glancing at her clock she follows up with, “-which is three hours from now,”

Zane smiles again, “Not soon enough,”

“Make it two?”

“Deal-,”

Zane leans in briefly to plant a kiss on Gaige’s cheek which leaves her speechless. When she finally gathers her wits, she crawls into her bunk.

“Told you he likes you,” Amara teases.

“Shut up,” Gaige whispers, grinning like an idiot under her covers.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so, if ya know me, ya know that ... I like crack ships. Here one of the crackier ones.  
Gaige is about 23-24, Zane is apparently mid 50s. I hope that doesn't really distract from the story i'm trying to present.


End file.
